Music Genres, History, and Cultural Forms
Types of Music
Religious or Sacred Music
Is about religious matters or related to any religion.
Secular Music
It is all nonreligious music and, therefore, about any other topic regarding human beings and their concerns.
Art Music
We usually understand this as “classical” music.
Popular Music
It is a type of music targeted for a wider audience and is generally more widespread and accepted. We have to distinguish between traditional or folkloric music and pop or easy listening music.
Descriptive Music
It is a kind of instrumental music that generally describes an event or phenomenon. For instance, a storm, a battle, birds singing, etc.
Program Music
Instrumental music based on the description of a program or plot, usually literary.
Dramatic Music
It is all music that sings or expresses a text and, therefore, all vocal music. It can be represented (like the opera) or not (like the song).
Abstract or Absolute Music
Instrumental music that does not refer to anything outside the piece itself.
Music Around the World
Arab Culture
The Arab culture resorts to a kind of soloist music that greatly emphasizes the melody and a type of nasal singing.
Sub-Saharan African Music
The music from Black or Sub-Saharan Africa has a collective nature connected to dance and the life of its different communities.
Eastern Music Diversity
Eastern culture has an extraordinary diversity of kinds of music bound to their different regions and traditions.
Chinese Music
Chinese music is closely bound to its legends and rituals. Melodies with pentatonic scales, as well as string and wind instruments, are the most common.
Music from India
The music from India is improvised. It is built upon scales called ‘ragas’ associated with different feelings. Soloist instruments (wind or string) accompanied by percussion are the most common.
Music in Indonesia
In Indonesia, music is bound to religion and dance. Its main characteristic is the use of ensembles exclusively formed by percussion instruments.
Religious Music from Tibet
Religious music from Tibet, performed by monks living in monasteries to accompany their rituals, employs a vocal technique called ‘diplophonic’ singing.
History of Western Classical Music
The Middle Ages (5th-15th Centuries)
It is a period that lasted from the 5th until the 15th centuries. During this era, convents and monasteries became the great centers of culture. Monks were almost the only ones who knew how to read and write. The Gregorian chant turned into the Church’s official type of singing.
The Renaissance (15th-16th Centuries)
It is a period that lasted from the 15th until the 16th centuries. During this era, there was a comeback to the classic models of Antiquity and a great cultural development enhanced by the invention of the printing press.
Religious vocal music employed polyphonic forms like the motet. Its main composers were Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594) and Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611).
Secular vocal music. Its main composers were Claudio Monteverdi (1557-1648) and Juan del Enzina (1468-1529).
The Baroque Period (17th-18th Centuries)
It is the artistic period that lasted from the 17th century until the first half of the 18th century.
Baroque art is full of contrasts and elaborate ornamentation. Baroque music also seeks contrasts: changes in dynamics, rhythm, and timbre, and it also uses ornamentation in melodies.
Great composers of history emerged: Antonio Vivaldi (1687-1741), J.S. Bach (1685-1750), and G. F. Haendel (1685-1759). Great vocal music forms were born: the opera and the oratorio.
The orchestra was also born, and with it, the first large forms of instrumental music: the suite and the concerto.
Classicism (Late 18th Century)
It is the period that covered approximately the second half of the 18th century. It meant a return to the ideals of Classical Antiquity’s beauty and proportion, trying to avoid the complexity of the Baroque.
Vocal music. The favorite kind of this era was the opera buffa. Instrumental music found its perfect model with the sonata.
The main composers from the Classicism are F. J. Haydn (1732-1809), W.A. Mozart (1756-1791), and Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827).
In the rest of the arts, this period is known as Neoclassicism because, after the Renaissance, it was the second time that the classic models of Greece and Rome were picked up.
Romanticism (19th Century)
This period lasted practically throughout the entire 19th century, an era guided by the spirit of the French Revolution (which praised human freedom and the expression of ideas and emotions).
The opera prevailed. Its main composers were Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868), Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1911), and Richard Wagner (1813-1883).
Small intimate forms like the lied and many pieces exclusively for piano appeared. The most important composers included: Franz Schubert (1797-1828) and Robert Schumann (1810-1856), and for their piano music, Frederic Chopin (1810-1846) and Franz Liszt (1811-1886).
Great instrumental music forms like the symphony and the concerto made the most of the grandeur of the orchestra and the virtuosity of soloist performers. The main composers were Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893).
20th and 21st Centuries
- Impressionism: Claude Debussy (1862-1918) and Maurice Ravel (1875-1937).
- Expressionism: its main characteristic is the pessimistic nature. Its main composer is Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951).
- Dodecaphonism: it is a composition technique created by Schoenberg.
- Serialism: it extends the concept of the dodecaphonic scale to all parameters of sound. Pitch, duration, intensity, and timbre are worked on in series. The main representatives are Alban Berg (1885-1935), Anton Webern (1883-1945), and Pierre Boulez (1925-2016).
- Electronic Music: Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007).
- Aleatoric Music: the performer improvises on their own. Its pioneer and main representative is John Cage (1912-1992).
Popular Music Evolution
From the beginning of time, humankind has used music to accompany daily chores, to keep themselves entertained, or to celebrate important community events.
Before sound recording and reproduction systems existed, or even modern media, music was transmitted orally, allowing for collective creations which we call folkloric or traditional music.
With the appearance of modern society and technology, a new popular music emerged. Its main purpose was commercial broadcasting. We can generally call it pop music or urban popular music.
Traditional Music
Traditional music preserves the most primitive and primary characteristics of music:
- It has a concrete social function.
- This music is accepted and assumed by everyone.
- They are anonymous creations.
- It is orally transmitted.
Spain’s Traditional Music Repertoire
The muñeira in Galicia, the asturianadas in Asturias, the mountain song in Cantabria, the zortziko in the Basque Country, the sardana in Catalonia, the folies in Valencia, or the flamenco in Andalucía.
Spain’s Traditional Music Instruments
Among typical instruments of specific areas, we can highlight the bagpipe in Galicia and Asturias, the hurdy-gurdy in Galicia, the txistu or three-hole pipe, the alboka, and the accordion in the Basque Country, the rebec and the dulzaina in Castilla y León, and the timple in Canarias.
Urban Popular Music
Black people contributed polyrhythm, the pentatonic scale, and characteristic improvisation. White people contributed the harmonic system based on degrees I, IV, and V, formal structures, and the typical instruments of marching bands.
Main Styles
- Blues: a type of melancholic song resulting from the fusion of Black labor songs and white music’s harmonic structure. It typically follows a 12-measure 4/4 form, divided into three 4-measure phrases based on the chords of I, IV, and V.
The harmonic structure of blues would later form the basis of rock and roll and much subsequent popular music.
- Jazz: a style based on instrumental improvisation over a series of chords and syncopated rhythms.
- Rock and Roll: Great figures emerged, such as Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry.
The Golden Age (1960s)
In the 1960s, many main styles of popular music were born. These years are known as the ‘golden age’.
- Soul: Notable figures include Otis Redding, Ben E. King, and Aretha Franklin.
- Folk: Folk music gave birth to the protest song; a main representative is Bob Dylan.
- Pop: based on the rhythm and electric guitars of rock and roll, and the melodic importance of the folk song. The Beatles are often considered true creators of pop music, known for reaching all audiences.
Music and Youth Culture
Teenagers used this music as a reflection of a new lifestyle opposed to the culture and tradition of their elders. Elvis Presley (1935-1977) was a key figure.
Rock Music
Often, ‘pop’ and ‘rock’ are used indistinctly, as rock is also a kind of popular music, a result of the media. The Beatles (founded in 1957, dissolved in 1970) are an example.
The Rolling Stones are often cited as a band that helped define this style.
Styles Since the 1970s
Since the 1970s, many styles have appeared as a result of the evolution of rock and pop, and the introduction of new electronic media applied to music.
- Heavy Metal: Representative groups include Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, AC/DC, and Motörhead.
- Funk: Main figures include James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and Prince.
- Disco: Great figures include Gloria Gaynor, Donna Summer, and bands like Boney M or Bee Gees.
- Punk: Most representative bands include Sex Pistols, The Clash, and Ramones.
- Techno: Notable groups include Eurythmics, Depeche Mode, and Spandau Ballet.
- New Wave: Notable bands include The Police (led by Sting), Talking Heads, and U2.
- Grunge: a style that mixes hard rock with punk. Its main representatives are Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
- Electronic Music: Main styles include techno and house.
- Hip Hop: Main figures include Public Enemy, The Notorious B.I.G., and Eminem.
Music in Media
Music for Theatre
Incidental Music
This music is composed in relation to a theatrical play. It enhances the development of the play by accompanying different scenes or serving as background music.
Famous examples include Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (for Shakespeare’s play) and Grieg’s Peer Gynt (composed for Ibsen’s drama).
Music and Narration
Incidental music can be considered a type of program music because it helps describe a literary program; in this case, a play. Movie soundtracks are also incidental music serving the film’s narrative.
The Musical
The musical is a spoken play that introduces songs and dances influenced by popular music styles. The music often creates a dreamy or hopeful atmosphere that can contrast with the scene’s action.
Notable musical films include Les Misérables, Beauty and the Beast, The Phantom of the Opera, Evita, Moulin Rouge, Chicago, and Mamma Mia.
Popular Musical
Unlike opera, the musical is a popular work intended for a wide audience, using appealing stage performance and accessible music as its main attractions.
Music for Film
Diegetic Music
Music that originates from a source within the film’s world and is heard by the characters (e.g., a record player, a dance orchestra).
Non-Diegetic Music
Background music whose source is not visible on screen and is not heard by the characters. The composer has freedom to create music that enhances the mood or narrative.
The Soundtrack
The soundtrack of a film typically has three parts: dialogue, sound effects, and background music. However, the term ‘soundtrack’ is often used to refer specifically to the background music.